


New Beginnings

by panic_switch



Category: Paramore
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26565688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panic_switch/pseuds/panic_switch
Summary: A Tayley one-shot inspired by Hayley talking about having bats in her house
Relationships: Hayley Williams/Taylor York
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> So I mainly publish on Wattpad (@Emma_Mercer) but I noticed some people moving over here so I thought I'd post this here because why not (and I do prefer AO3 over Wattpad any day of the week).
> 
> This is just a little thing I wrote to get over writer's block a couple months ago, there most likely won't be any follow up. I was going to write like a full-length slowburn longfic on the events of the last 2 to 3 years but then I realized I already have to calm and finish what I've already started lol so here we are
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

The way he looked at her. She couldn't get it out of her head. He always looked at her during shows, that wasn't what was bugging her. It was the intensity of his stare boring into her. It was the way his irises darkened when his eyes landed on her skin. It was where he was looking. Not just at her face, grinning at the way she danced as he strummed to their songs, but at her body as she could feel his gaze traveling down the skin exposed by her shorts, all the way to her ankles when he thought she wasn't looking.

It wasn't like him. Certainly not like the guy she met over 15 years ago, the guy who's been her best friend for so long.

Thing is she knew this look. It wasn't hard to decipher; it was lust. But he's never looked at her like that, not that she knew of.

No, it couldn't've been. The flashy lights, the thousands of cheering people, and the blood rushing through her veins had blurred her perception. But the more she tried to convince herself of that reality, the more she recalled the feeling of his lingering stare gliding over her skin as if he couldn't possibly get enough of the view.

 _No._ She shook her head. She was being ridiculous. She'd had a little too much to drink and wasn't thinking rationally that night. Of course he wasn't looking at her like _that;_ like he wanted her. He's her best friend for Christ's sake. They mutually friend-zoned each other basically the day they met. To think anything could've changed for him was utterly delusional. Much less to think something had changed for her.

She was divorced, had trust and abandonment issues, and was certainly not looking to act on some weird feeling towards her best friend, pretty much the only person who had been a constant in her life. That was a friendship she wouldn't survive losing. Not after everything else she's lost.

Hayley rolled over on the air mattress, possibly the most uncomfortable thing she's ever laid on, and let out a sigh. It must've been the middle of the night, but her head just wouldn't let her rest, the thoughts not willing to stop swirling around her head.

As she stared out the glass door onto her patio, she seriously considered trying to rest on the only pieces of furniture in this house: a single wooden chair and a small table. Anything would've been more comfortable than that damn air mattress. She quickly dismissed that thought, though, as she realized it was far too cold outside for her makeshift blanket that consisted of the two large towels she found to be the thing on top of the many stacks of clothes in one of her suitcases.

It was at that moment that she heard the strangest sound. It was a weird shuffling as if something was moving in another room. Hayley slowly got up and made her way up the stairs towards the attic, the place the sound seemed to have come from, naturally petrified since her first thought had been that there was a serial killer living in her attic. She almost believed she'd imagined it after entering the room and finding it to be empty. Just then something flew right in front of her face. With a yelp, she jumped back and followed the black object with her eyes.

 _Oh no,_ she thought as she inspected the wall where it had rested. Bats. Not just one or two, more like a dozen. That had to be a joke. If this was someone's way of punishing her for thinking about things she shouldn't be thinking about, it sure was creative.

When she tried to go to sleep after, her disruption seemed to have given the animals the idea to also check out the bottom floor of the house, so the second she closed her eyes, the bats' wings could be heard flapping around her.

With a heavy exhale she picked her phone up and scrolled through her contacts, looking for whoever she didn't think would totally hate her for a text at 3 am. Joey was out of town and Lindsey was doing some photoshoot in New York, so she only really had one option left.

_Hayley: are you awake?_

As soon as she pressed send, she regretted it. He's the last person she should be texting right now. She wasn't surprised, though, when a minute her screen lit up with a reply.

_Taylor: i am now_

_Hayley: were you actually asleep?_

She texted back, worried that she'd awoken him. He's usually up at the most unusual hours so in her head, he was in his studio playing guitar or something.

_Taylor: kind of but not really, don't worry about it though. what's up?_

Hayley thought about what she would say to that if she didn't have to filter herself. I can't stop thinking about you and it's driving me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that it's almost more crazy than the fact that there's bats in my house.

_Hayley: i think i have a problem and i cant sleep_

_Taylor: what kind of problem?_

She paused for a second, thinking of something that wouldn't make it sound as if she was joking.

_Hayley: there are bats in my house_

Well, that wasn't very successful.

_Taylor: bats_

_Hayley: yes bats_

_Taylor: i can't tell if you're being serious or not_

_Hayley: i am very serious. they're all around here and i cant sleep_

_Taylor: want to sleep in my guest bedroom?_

She bit her lip as she considered the option. It was more than appealing. Not only would she not have to deal with the fucking bats and spiders all over her new, and apparently terrifying, house, but she could also sleep in a comfortable bed that smelled like him. And she wouldn't have to be alone. In her 29 years, she's never lived alone. When she moved out of her mom's place she was already dating Chad, and given how little either of them was home, they decided to live together even though they'd only been dating for a little over a year at that point.

_Hayley: no, thanks though_

She had to do this. She had to get used to this, to being on her own. She couldn't let her friends solve her problems anymore, certainly not Taylor. He of all people deserved a break from her existential crises and breakdowns. He'd always been there to pick up the pieces. Every single time his shoulder was there for her to cry on, the door to his guest bedroom opened. Always by her side through anything life threw at them.

Hayley half expected Taylor to say something more but after a few minutes of scrolling through her phone without another reply, she decided to not bother him with her bat infestation problem. She was surprised, though, when she heard a car pull into her driveway a little later.

Watching from behind her window she recognized it to be Taylor's black BMW. What the hell was he even doing here? As her hand opened the front door he was just getting out of the car, the dim yellow glow of the streetlamps lighting up his face. She shuddered at the cold, only then realizing that she wasn't wearing anything but an oversized t-shirt that reached to her mid-thigh.

She could've sworn she saw that same look in his eyes when they first landed on her as she did during the shows before he darted his gaze elsewhere as he shut the door of his car.

"What are you doing here?" Hayley asked as Taylor approached her.

"It's your first night in this house," he said and she knew what he meant. It wasn't that it was the first night since she moved into a new house, it was the fact that for the very first time in her life she didn't share that house with anyone. "I just didn't think you should be alone." He made his way up the path leading to her front door.

"Oh," Hayley let out into his shoulder as he pulled her in for a hug, breathing him in, her heart feeling like it just might burst with her love for him. As much as she hated to admit it, that night his presence was like oxygen to her. She loved how safe his arms made her feel. Even all those years ago when they didn't know each other nearly as well as they did now she's always felt the safest with him.

"How are you doing?" he whispered into her hair.

"I'm okay," she replied. Being in his arms like that she almost believed it. She hadn't realized how much she needed him until he actually showed up at her doorstep. There was nobody who knew her as well as he did. "Except for the bats."

Hayley felt a laugh vibrate through his chest before he leaned away. "Is that real?"

"Very." She led him through the house until two bats flew right above their heads.

"Shit Hayles," Taylor took a couple steps back, startled by the animals, "you weren't kidding."

"I wish I was," she said absent-mindedly and turned to see Taylor taking his phone out of his back pocket.

"According to Google, bats are scared of snakes and birds," he read.

"Oh joy," Hayley replied sarcastically.

"Hey, this one article says that they hate cinnamon."

"T, I just moved here _today_ , I don't have any groceries much less cinnamon," she said as another bat flew above their heads.

"So do we just let someone else handle it?"

"I'll make some calls in the morning. For now, though, I think I just have to deal with it." Hayley sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"You can always crash in my house," he offered.

Hayley pondered the option one more time, its appeal stronger than before now that she was actually reminded of what it's like to be with him. "I have to do this. Deal with the hard things head-on, you know? I can't just keep denying things and letting other people be the solutions to my problems anymore. That has to be so exhausting for you."

"It's not exhausting, Hayley," Taylor said as he took a strand of her hair between his thumb and index finger. "But okay, if you don't want to sleep at my house I guess I'll just have to sleep at yours." He dropped his hand at her side.

"What?" she questioned.

"I heard bats can be pretty dangerous. You might need some protection," he joked, offering her a comically serious look.

"T, you don't have to do that. I'm serious, go home. You'll regret it the second you lay down on that mattress, it's even worse than tour bus bunk beds," she tried to convince him, though she very much hoped he wouldn't listen.

"I'm not leaving," he replied while tossing his jacket on the ground. "I promised you, didn't I?"

Hayley smiled at the memory of him vowing to never leave her the night after Jeremy quit. He was her only lifeline then and still is now.

Before she had the chance to reply he'd already taken his shoes off and was laying down on the mattress. Even in the dark, she could see his face scrunch up in discomfort but he quickly schooled his expression when he noticed her eyes on him.

"Just like a king-sized bed," Taylor said with a wide grin, both rows of his teeth showing as he put his hands behind his head.

Hayley laughed and laid down next to him. The humor in the air quickly died out and was replaced by something else. She didn't want to call it love but no other word seemed to be fitting. There was something sorrowful about it, too, like after everything that's happened it was just him who stayed. But maybe exactly that was the part that filled the hole in her heart.

"Thank you," she said as she snuggled into Taylor's side, his arms wrapping around her small frame as she did so. The phrase held so much more than just thanking him for showing up that night. It was her attempt at expressing the endless gratitude towards who he is. She couldn't even count how many times she's thanked him in the past couple of years. She'd said it so often that there was a time he'd get a little annoyed when, inevitably, she uttered another thanks. And yet after everything that's happened, he was still there.

"Anytime."


End file.
